Abandonment | Why, why have you abandoned me?

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by Léo Latil (1890 - 1915)

Translation © by Faith J. Cormier

L'abandon

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Pourquoi, pourquoi m'avez vous abandonné?
Il fait nuit et le grand vent de la fin de l'hiver souffle.
Il siffle dans la cheminée  
et sous les portes, et m'entoure de froid. 
Dehors il  doit secouer les arbres follement, 
s'élancer dans les rues, contournant les maisons,
et bondir dans les campagnes au dessus des collines  
et des bruyères mortes. 
Pourquoi m'avez vous abandonné, mon amie? 
Les nuages d'un noir de suie mouvementés 
et soulevés, laissant voir le ciel d'un bleu nocturne,
s'étendent au dessus des sombres campagnes.
Et tout le ciel abaissé se meut sur la terre.
Je vous aime avec mes larmes 
et je vous donne la douleur de mon coeur. 
Que m'importe, que vous m'ayez abandonné,
ô trop heureuse, trop joyeuse et trop douce! 
Que m'importe... car si votre amour 
adoucissait mon coeur ce soir, 
je ne sentirais pas mon âme épouvantée
emportée sur les ailes du vent dans les sombres campagnes.

Text Authorship:

by Léo Latil (1890 - 1915) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974), "L'abandon", op. 20 no. 1 (1914), published 1920 [ voice and piano ], from Quatre Poèmes de Léo Latil, no. 1, Éd. Durand [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "Abandonment", copyright © 2002, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 21
Word count: 153

Abandonment

Language: English after the French (Français)

 Why, why have you abandoned me? 
 It's night, and a late-winter wind is raging. 
 It's blowing down the chimney 
 and under the door, blanketing me with cold. 
 Outside it's shaking the trees, 
 darting into the street, running around houses
 and bounding through the countryside over the hills 
 and the dead heather. 
 Why did you abandon me, Love? 
 The soot-black clouds move 
 and rise, giving glimpses of a midnight sky
 far above the somber fields. 
 The lowered sky throws itself at the earth. 
 I love you with my tears 
 and I give you my heart's pain. 
 What it to me that you abandoned me, 
 you who are too happy, too joyous, too sweet! 
 What does it matter to me - for if your love 
 softened my heart tonight, 
 I would not feel my terrified soul swept off 
 on the wings of the wind over the somber fields.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2002 by Faith J. Cormier, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Léo Latil (1890 - 1915)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 21
Word count: 146